In truth, I’ve only been a graphic designer for 9+ years but one of the many things I learned in middle school is anything over 5 can be rounded to 10. So in this case, I can only speak from experience in my near “10 years”. And what I’ve learned is that the life of a graphic designer is not easy. It’s mentally draining. This is no career for lightweights, that’s for sure.

Unless you’re one of the lucky ones and can find a job that you can stay in and grow for several years, you may end up bouncing from job to job, client to client, regardless of your experience and talent, just to get by.

Most likely an artist at heart, you’re probably pursuing design and advertising as a means of still being creative and   yet  still making money. Being a fine artist and surviving economically is position for stronger men than I, but let’s not get sidetracked.

Your first 10 years may be plagued with dozens upon dozens of clients who can appreciate the quality of your work, but are influenced by websites like fiver.com that promise logo designs and branding for cents on the dollar. Selling your skills and experience becomes paramount as a freelance designer.

Being a freelance designer means being a good salesman.

When you started studying design & advertising as a means of procuring a steady income creatively, you probably never thought you’d need to know anything about business or sales. Sadly, this may leave many a designer unprepared for the pending lifestyle whilst searching for a full time gig. After 9+ years as a designer I am currently headlong in a full time gig I should be proud of, but the feelings don’t change. I am mentally drained on a regular basis as I search my brain for answers to my job’s daily questions. However, I constantly recall the fundamental lessons I’ve learned about design and find new solutions to pending problems I was not prepared for in my education.

Truth is, I am more than prepared. My education prepared me to find solutions. A degree in a creative field somehow managed to teach me to think practically and logically.

Quantifying your creativity

Being a graphic designer means realizing that creativity allows you to have your head in the clouds,  while simultaneously teaching you to keep your feet on the ground.  This is the only way to be successful as a designer. The artist’s heart drive us to express ourselves and be creative, but, to be successful, you must take your passion for creativity and innovation and apply it to logic and statistics.

I have worked with dozens of clients over the years- some small businesses, some national corporations. Whether they are new businesses struggling to make 50 grand a year or aged national corporations making 50 million a year – I’ve experienced all ends. The experience and the growth as a designer doesn’t change.

Every day is an opportunity to learn something new. 

Successful graphic designers have to always be learning. Never think you’ve got it all figured out, because I can promise you, you’re wrong. Technology is an ever changing beast and to survive as a designer you have to be on top of all the latest…  everything. Social media, design trends and the like.

My father is an extremely talented portrait artist, but had no degree and has struggled for decades jumping from job to job just trying to make ends meet. His creativity and his passion in life became nothing more than a hobby. It took me years of traveling and searching to find what I was meant to do because I was convinced that creativity was not a career. Once I decided to pursue design as a career I put several long years in to get that degree and became the first person in my family to have one. It is indeed rewarding, but one of the many lessons I’ve learned in my near 10 years as a designer is that a degree doesn’t mean as much as it did a few decades ago. A degree doesn’t guarantee you a stable career. You can put your time in and pay an institution thousands upon thousands of dollars for an education, but at the end of the day, you have to keep working. Keep learning and developing your skills. Learn from clients who think you’re not worth your education. Learn from the projects that stump you. The projects that make you feel like you failed as a creative. You have to learn from the jobs you take and the sometimes minimal experience you may gain with it.

Being a designer often means preparing for the struggle, but if you have the drive to push through, you might just be successful.